Aigronne Valley Wildlife pages

Sunday, 20 October 2013

The beginning of the end of October and there are still plenty of butterflies around...
Yesterday I saw dozens of Speckled Woods [Pararge aegeria] Tircis as I walked around the meadow to assess this Winter's tree and land work...

There is an ant trying to hitch a lift here... or else he's practising his scales!!

also, in the potager area we still have appreciable numbers of Clouded Yellows and a few Peacocks, Red Admirals and the odd Map...

Clouded Yellow... they never stay still!!

and on the 15th an utterly mad Humming-bird Hawkmoth working the Gaura flowers in the front bed...
in the teeming rain!!
Needed its antennae checking, that one!!

The Chiffchaffs are still here in good numbers...
I saw the first of the seasons Great White Egrets in the long field on the left as I drove from Grand Pressigny towards Abilly...
and Pauline saw a Crane [Grus grus] Grue Cendre yesterday...
just the one trumpeting away... and flying North East...
must have taken off early that morning, got so far...
and then realised that everyone else had stayed put at the previous nights stopover!!
The Black Redstarts are still around and the Robins are back!

A bit of Eperon de Murat news...
Pauline and I went to Ferrière-Larçon on Thursday evening to see what the new plans for the site were...
it was a presentation by the Conservatoire du Patrimoine Naturel de la Région Centre.

Hopefully...
a walkway from the road to the Murat farm to the main fields of the site itself...
and a pathway round...
the mayor, Gérard Henault, bemoaned the current main access that requires people to be "below 30 years old and have alpiniste skills"...
and the fact that he is getting no help at all on purchasing the farm itself...
the intention being to turn it into an interpretive centre, housing permanent and occasional displays as well as providing shelter for visitors in inclement weather.
Then, a couple of people in the audience {owners of Murat?} started arguing about the size of the plaque [about a foot square, apparently]...
and I was reminded of a meeting long ago when a committee I was involved with spent three hours discussing the first item on the agenda...of vital importance, of course...
the colour of the cover of the college diary!!
[If I'd been the chair that would have gone to a sub-committee!!!!]

And then comments were made about the size of the car park...
if it was for more than two cars it was going to be too big!!
"We don't actually want people to visit"... was the opinion of the very vocal minority...
the same couple who were concerned that a foot square sign was going to be too big!

Actually, neither do the guardians of the site want too many visitors...
understandable, considering the rare plants & insects and the ancient fortifications...
so they are intending to install infra-red footfall counters in a couple of places...
it was also pointed out that it is about a kilometre from the proposed car park to the site itself...
many people will satisfy themselves with any display that may be at the farm and drive on, mentally ticking it off as "visited".

There are too many trees now on the site... especially the junipers... mainly there through neglect / lack of management and the current sheep are too selective [read fussy] and are not munching them properly...
they really ought to use Scottish Black Faced sheep...
not as fussy, about the only thing they won't eat is Nardus stricta [Mattgrass] which is too siliceous for even them...
the Wildlife Trusts use these for their "Flying Flocks"...
as do the LPO [who advertise their excess for sale at the back of L'Oiseauxmagazine...along with their excess Highland cattle! I'm tempted by the latter for here... only tempted mind!]

So these, along with the trees that have rooted into the defensive wall [vallum] and are slowly destroying that, must be controlled with more vigour!!
Major snag here...
removing the trees on the vallum will lead to erosion of the unprotected wall....
so a long roof will need to be constructed until other vegetation establishes...
don't hold your breath on that one...
apart from the obvious cost...
the example shown [from elsewhere] met with assorted gasps and disapproving grunts!!
It did look ugly... like a poorly built wood store!!

The two speakers were very poor, though...
the first swallowing the latter half of most of her sentences...
and the other spoke at the computer screen all the time!
Fortunately, monsieur le Maire often sub-titled what was being said by his comments!!

More interesting and understandable was the PowerPoint presentation... including two aerial views of the site...
one from 1950 showing all the little fields and very few trees...

Look at all the very little fields in the top right corner...
and the vallum is already marked by a tree line...
the smaller wall [muraille] is just visible as a faint line almost the same distance from the main wall...
as the main wall is from the tip.

and one from 1970 showing one vast field over all but the tip of the protected area!!

So we watch with interest....
whilst I can still manage to scramble up from the stile at the bottom, Pauline cannot...
so effectively is barred from the barré!!

"Giant woven willow sculptures of some of the UK's edible mushroom varieties have sprung up on the lawns at Kew Gardens in west London.
Kew's experts look after the largest collection of dried fungi in the world - which also includes more sinister, inedible varieties.

The fungarium at Kew Gardens is opening to the public on 13 October to mark National Fungus Day. " BBC

On the way back, having endured deafening rain on the skylights of Lidl...
lakes in the carpark at Le Clerc and speeding-irriots without any lights on on the way back....
I was hoping that the rain would have eased once we'd crossed the Claise.
Some hope!!

I leapt quickly out of the car and grabbed the creature...
it hadn't moved!!
But I wasn't taking any photographs....
not with the rain teeming down.
What was so marvellous that I braved teeming rain....
this....

A Giant Puffball.... but I took the picture Sunday in the sun!!

Food source of extreme size... but very good for the waistline [unless you fry it in butter!!]
More about this will be on "De la Bonne Bouffe" later....
but I will say more, here, about the Giant Puffball [Calvatia gigantea] Vesse-de-loup géante itself...

Not over appetising from underneath... but there is enough here to cut this bit off!

On average they grow to around 10 to 70 centimetres (3.9 to 28 in) in diameter...but specimens have been found up to 150 centimetres across with a weight of 20 kilos!!
Now there's a food source...
This one was 23cm across and weighed 872 grammes.
All smaller ones must be cut through regardless of their maturity...
they are easily confused at this size with the immature unopened white mushrooms...
some of which are deadly!
The inside of a Giant Puffball is white and mealy [in fact, it looks & smells wonderfully floury]

Inside the puffball... note the thick skin surrounding the mass of spores

But the puffballs aren't when mature, and white inside... which this one was!!
Maturity goes from a yellow stage to a ghastly dry, greeny brown spore stage....
all of these actually look most unappetising...
and I honestly don't think that any sensible person would even consider using one!

Trying to measure it... no giant callipers... had to use two hardback books!!

Looking it up on Wiki created a wonderful guide to cultures...
English Wiki was informative and very scientific with comments about boring taxonomic details...sorry Susan[I know that taxonomy is important... but I can't afford new guide books which are out of date on publication]...

"The classification of this species has been revised in recent years, as the formerly recognized class Gasteromycetes, which included all puffballs, has been found to be polyphyletic. Some authors place the giant puffball and other members of genus Calvatia in order Agaricales. Also, the species has in the past been placed in two other genera, Lycoperdon and Langermannia. However, the current view is that the Giant Puffball is Calvatia.Recently, some members of the genus Calvatia have been re-located into the genus Handkea."

Which is why I can never find anything if I use my Collins Guide from 1965!!
You can all wake up now!

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Well, not the nuts, but the leaves of one of the hazels...
they are caterpillars of the Buff-tip moth [Phalera bucephala] la Bucéphale...
and they were decimating the leaves of one filbert.
just the one, mind... the greenest leaved one!!

Just a few here....

Pauline spotted them as she harvested the nuts... they were quite visible...
these yellow-and-black striped, silver haired caterpillars live gregariously...
and feed on a number of different deciduous trees*...
sometimes, as on our hazel, defoliating entire branches."Wiki" seems to think that it is only gregarious when young...
but these were large caterpillars... around two and a half inches long and a quarter of an inch thick.
I knocked the branches they were on and collected them in a plastic box...
and then 'broadcast' them at the "hazel beyond the brambles"....

at the bottom corner of the verger...
[the one we can't get at to pick]
They can decimate that to their hearts content...
but they can leave my nuts alone!!

Which end is which?

I knew the moth well, having seen it many times...
and have even seen it here...

Buff-tip... or dead twig? [Click on this picture to enlarge it and see the real beauty of the scales.]

and as can be seen from the picture above it looks fairly like a broken bit of twig.

The buff ends look like rotten wood and the silver-grey between like a silvery bark...
all the books liken this to Silver Birch...
but around here, I would reckon this is better on dead Poplar....
in fact, a damn sight more successful...
Silver Birch branches up to about three-quarters of an inch diameter are usually a dull, mid-brown colour!
Dead Poplar branches become silvery-grey at quite small diameters.
As do those of Ash!!

Team strippers in action...

The adults fly June and July...
and their caterpillars can be found between July and October on....*and this is based on the "Wiki" list...

Norway Maple... down by the riverField Maple... everywhereBirch... we've planted someHazel... yes, well!!Laburnum... not around here... not ever!Lime... in the front gardenPoplar sp... just a few... thousandPrunus sp... mainly Blackthorn... then there are our plums, etc.Oak... yes, plenty...Robinia... NO! Never...Rose... plentyWillow... eighteen species here...Elm... mostly Wych Elm in the hedgesViburnum... we've planted V.opulus for the birds [and Autumn colour]

so there's plenty of other plants for Buffy to eat!!

Most sources give the wingspan as 42-56 mm [except "Wiki"... 55 to 68mm?]
and the caterpillar 65-75mm [2.5 to 3 inches]

The tail-end view of a bunch... the middle one is wearing a bandit mask... and well it should!!

The Wildlife Trusts gives the following information...

"The Buff-tip is a medium-sized moth that is on the wing at night from June to July.
It is quite a common moth in parks and gardens, as well as woodland edges, scrub and hedgerows.
The caterpillars are striking: large, hairy and yellow, with a black head and a ring of short black stripes on every segment.
They often gather together in large numbers, eating the leaves of Lime, Birch, Hazel and Willow trees, sometimes defoliating whole branches, but rarely causing serious damage.
This moth pupates on the ground and overwinters as a chrysalis."

"although they occur rather later in the summer than oak processionary moth larvae...
from a distance they can resemble this species when their abundant fine grey hairs (setae) catch the light. However, on closer inspection they are easily identified by their distinctly patterned yellow and black body with grey and yellow stripes."

Eurostar design concept?... they were certainly speed eating!

From the Sagawebsite...{not one of my normal haunts, but was linked to from elsewhere...}
so I followed where no self respecting over-50s would wish to tread...
there one David Chapman introduces a master of disguise...

"Moths tend to be active by night, a strategy which offers them safety from the majority of predators, with the exception of bats. However this approach does present them with a problem: what to do to remain safe during the day!

The answer is that moths hide away in all sorts of nooks and crannies and dark places where they might be safe from predatory birds and mammals. To help them remain hidden most moths are drably coloured, and this is sufficient for them to avoid being spotted but some have a much more precise camouflage.

The buff-tip moth has one of the most amazing camouflage patterns and even its shape has evolved to help it blend in with its chosen surroundings. When a Buff-tip moth rests amongst broken twigs on the woodland floor, or amongst branches on a tree, it almost disappears from sight.

Buff-tip moths can be found in gardens and woodland, their flight season is mostly June and July. Having spent the winter as a chrysalis underground the adult moth takes to the wing and the females soon lay a large batch of eggs. Their larvae hatch out en masse, eating the leaves of various trees including sallows, birch, oak and hazel, and for a while, stick together making them a good deal more obvious than their parents! Once they have the strength, they spread out before pupating underground in the autumn and so the life-cycle begins again."

More from "Wiki"...

"The Buff-tip (Phalera bucephala) is a moth of the family Notodontidae. It is found throughout Europe.

This is a fairly large, heavy bodied species with a wingspan of 55–68 mm. The forewings are grey with a large prominent buff patch at the apex. As the thoracic hair is also buff, the moth looks remarkably like a broken twig when at rest. The hindwings are creamy-white. This moth flies at night in June and July and sometimes comes to light, although it is not generally strongly attracted."

Spotted on the Web

We collect links to interesting Natural History & Environmental stories that we spot on the Interweb...this is where we draw your attention to them...[and there is an archive page of the same name... where you can also leave comments]

"In the past few years there has been a "wild food" boom with celebrity chefs heading for the great outdoors in search of fresh ingredients. So, how practical is it to live solely on wild food? And does spurning the supermarket, as some critics have claimed, make you just a bit annoying?"

Wildlife in the Aigronne and Touraine du Sud

Based at our house near Le Grand Pressigny, we are centrally placed between The Brenne & The Loire Anjou Touraine National Parks and the Sologne, enabling us to observe wild events and discover new [to us] insects, plants and birds.

We started this record in 2003, when we bought La Forge and from time to time we will be publishing the odd species list of what we've seen here at La Forge and in the immediate vicinity.

We've also been building a collection of finds, mainly from prehistory... we record those as well on the blog Touraine Flint.As well as pictures on this site, we've been posting to flickr.

Guided Tours in a lovely limo!

Susan&Simon from Days on the Claise have another blog, Loire Valley Nature, which is "designed to be used as an English language natural history web resource for lowland central France." .

Please note:

The early listings were only a few observations with an entry and usually no record of numbers!They had been taken directly from our 'birders notebook'Where there are further details from the book we keep at the house, they will be added later.